For the dead breathe free when you are here
by Just-LiveLaughLove
Summary: "One day Caroline, you will wish you had called for me earlier. Wished I had been there" Caroline is plagued with the ghastly faces of those gruesomely murdered. And to have thought, that he of all people could have been so right. Klaus and Caroline ONESHOT. be warned, it's long...


**i do not own the Vampire diaries.**

this is A farely long ONESHOT, just following the events caroline experienced and felt before and after the death of her friends.  
PS; the prior and later are referring to either 'before' or 'after' everyone died...

enjoy, ... i hope

* * *

**"For the dead breathe free when you're here"**

**.**

**.**

**.**

~This is what she lets herself remember~

It was raining blood.  
Literally.

The forest ground was showered with fallen leaves and broken ribs.  
Trees hung low, craned their necks forward to hide the mass of flesh and blood that stained their bodies.

It was war.

It was deaths birthday.

Head count: _people dead._

First off the bat;

Matt, throat gashed. Last moments of life tasting his own blood, [drowning in his own fear]. Trying to breathe in the crisp evening air of 9:27pm.  
He instead convulsed on the crimson drops of metal liquid burning his eyes, blinding his vision. Leading him into a darkness, that was never a place for him to begin with.  
[Caroline's light could not restore the youth his smile would disperse].

Alaric, spine ripped clean from his back.  
Damon's hands hovering above him, his meticulous fingers covered in his best friend's life line.  
Ricks eyes frozen in shock, glazed in appreciation.  
_Damon no!_ Elena's voice rung in his ears, the wet succulent sound that came from Alaric was the pull too far for the elastic band. Everything snapped.  
Elena died a little more inside.  
Alaric's pulse flat-lined into nothing.

Bonnie's mum; staked to the heart, a measly stick protruding through the ignorant vampires chest. Bonnie cried black. The veins engulfed her arms in a potent, vigorous consumption. Watching her abandonee mother's previous death catching up with her is the straw that broke Bonnie's back. [She crossed a line, now she can never return].  
Caroline learnt then, that time will never fail to take what's theirs.

But, this is where everyone stopped. This is where it all was worth for nothing.

_Elena_. Buried in a watery lake. A grave in her brothers tears.

~This is what she tries to forget~

A stake, traveled through the air.  
Falling onto the path of Stefan Salvatore.  
It soared through palette bone. It penetrated a chest. Just, not his.  
Rebekah stared up at him, knees failing her. _His _arms cradling her ashen body to his harrowing heart.  
The one she always wanted. The one she never accomplished gazed down at her, eyes crazed.  
Her hand fisted in his white-red shirt, just over his chest. Reaching for his dead-heart.  
Tears fell. _I don't want to let go_.  
Her fingers loosened, but it was him that time, who could never let go.

Honorable. Chivalrous. That night he was so much more, yet somehow, became so much less.  
Elijah grasped tight. A thunder roaring in his eyes, one that put Zeus to shame.  
Brown hair floated around her in the sea of red, her shoulders breached its surface- head supported in the crook of Elijah's arms. It was especially cold that night, and Elena's last breathe was the frosty bite of the forest that let him feel how doomed his world had become.  
Love-struck. That's what he was. Holding onto her that way, crushing her to him that way; trying to preserve the echo of the doe eyed beauty he treasured.

_Back scratching train._  
That's what it looked like. It was laughable, the similarities of the positioning, but the utter depravity of the situation was a condo filled with dreadfully fragile results.  
Kol's eyes danced to a terrifying life. His lips flashed white teeth and perfectly sharpened ivory fangs. Fit for biting. Fit for _killing_.  
But, that did not have Caroline screeching. Clawing at his arm. Pleading with what sanity that could be detected underneath the cumbersome bile of rage Kol was a pawn under.  
Revenge shimmered on the pallets of his tongue; he had a thirst that could not be quenched.  
_Please, please, Kol! Please! _It was a mediocre attempt. But she begged; knees to the floor and all that jazz. He looked to her. Looked through her. Worthless words fit for inutile children.  
And then he ripped out Tyler's heart. Tossing it into Caroline's palm before the hybrids body hit the floor.  
Tyler's body became cold, but his heart remained warm.

* * *

She tries to outrun the memories, but they always seem to catch up

* * *

X

.

.

One…two…three… four months _later_  
Saturday, 12:01am

.  
.

Caroline watches a girl, slinking through the back door, pulling along a boy.  
Their pools of laughter, tinged with alcohol, drift behind them.

Their anticipation stimulates their distinctive odors of pleasure. They have a new agenda- a more physical act of excitement. All of this allures Caroline's senses, scathes at her gums that expand, making room for very real white fangs.

The old Caroline would have smiled teeth lathered in jealousy. Spoken words of indecision; tell them to use protection? Or go all 'cops daughter' on their asses?

Because, no one had ever wanted her that desperately. Needed her in an agonizing heat of desire.  
But then she remembers someone did.  
Someone still does.

She shakes her head, refuses herself the privilege to dream. He wasn't there when he always promised he would be. He wasn't there soon enough to prevent the tears she bled when she watched them die.

She follows the humans out.

.

.

_Damon would be proud_ she thinks, licking off the crimson line that runs the length of her long slim fingers.  
_Damon would join me_she thinks confidently, as she slouches against the wall of the alley, breathing deep. Waiting still.

_Stefan would pity you_.

The Salvatore brothers haven't visited her dreams in while, not to mention _her_in what seems like a millennia.

She wonders just how deep the anger brewed within their dead-life. Whether they still view each other in a new profound light. A new _darker _shade of grey.

A fire cannot match the atrocity they watched. The water cannot satiate the salvation they entail.  
_She_died.

Elena was all that mattered and with her gone, they found no reason to stay.  
She wonders coldly, if she had called earlier, would the outcome shape itself differently?  
If it had been her that had died, would they mourn all the same?

The thought comes quickly and she's too distraught to stop herself from sobbing. Her heavy cries fall across the floor and are picked up by the wind. Not even her despair will grant her the company she needs.

Nothing ever seems to stay long enough.

X

* * *

.

.

Three… four…five days _later_  
twelve noon.

.  
.

"Where will you guys go?" she could not conceal the wavering of her voice. She needed them, she needed someone. But everyone seemed to forget her existence the moment the doppelgangers life subdued itself into an obscure, unwarranted death, that honestly, was ridiculously, _obviously_ inevitable.

"I'm going to head down south" Stefan said. Slinging one bag of clothes over his shoulder.

"But, will you- are you... Will I see you again?" He gave her a wan smile. It tethered him to the old friend she grew to love. Though it was still tainted. Not entirely real.

"I won't be able to stay away" he answered. Eyes no longer crazed like that night. That god awful night. She shook away the vivid image of blood, the overpowering stench of molded loss.

"Is that a promise" her voice broke. _Please swear it on something that matters.  
_"I swear it. On bunny hunting Tuesdays". She gave a short laugh. More than what he had bargained for.

He dropped his bag and pulled her into a hug that said so much more than what words he could conjure. _Time will heal this._

_I'll be back._  
_I won't abandon you, I promise._

She buried her face into his chest; let him stroke her unwashed matted hair.  
"You're my best friend, Stefan" she muttered. "You're pretty much all I got left"  
"That's not true" he pulled away, hands cupping her face. "You have me. Damon. Jeremy. Bonnie"  
"It's going to be hard. But we will get through this. One day. I promise"

"People really have to stop making promises they can't keep" his green eyes went as deep as forest soil.

But she could see his thoughts like the bottom of a shallow kiddy pool. He graced her cheek with soothing strokes. He knew what she was referring to. But he didn't harp on it.

No one ever did.

Not anymore

* * *

.

.

One…two…three… four months _later_  
Friday, 11:43pm

.  
.

She smells his presence rather than feels it.  
Bile. Apathy in its most horrific form stenches the air around him.

He smells of death.

"Go away, I'm not in the mood to hear your apology" she speaks into the rim of her cup. Her warm breath fogging the glass, disorienting him completely.

"That's fine, darling. I'm not here to apologize" he slaps his hand on the counter, signaling the bar keeper. With blue eyes like matt, blonde hair like matt. Her fingers squeeze the stool beneath her.  
_Matt isn't here to serve your drinks anymore._

Slamming her cup beside the originals hand, she shoots him eyes armed with malice.

He's not wearing his world class smirk. He is simply staring, an unreadable gaze measuring her in a deceitfully cozy case of brown.

"Then what are you doing here?" she demands. Voice stern. Eyes firing.  
"Here for a drink," he turns away to claim his beverage of scotch.  
"well, do you mind moving down a tad" she says with mock sincerity, "your fucking odor is starting to blind my vision."  
"got a mouth on you tonight, don't you, darling"  
"don't call me that," she seethes, "better yet don't talk to me. Not at all. Not ever."

She snatches up her purse and begins to stalk away.  
His fingers snake around her arm and haul her back to him so they are face to face. His nose barely whispering over her cheek.

"I would like to remind you that your hybrid mutt of a boyfriend was guilty of many crimes; I was simply repaying the favour"  
"are you kidding me!" she tries to yank herself free. His grip only tightens.  
"He's lucky I didn't go after _you_"

Her arm stills, her retribution quells into a motionless condition.

"If you are expecting me to thank you for that, you have another thing coming. All you've done is left me heartbroken". Her eyes sting, they burn from a fire that shrivels from the centre of her heart.

Kols' face softens and for a second, _only a second_, Caroline can swear she sees something resembling regret coating his eyes. Pulling his lips into a capricious frown.

"You are not the only one," he whispers, "who is hurting". And just like that, he relinquishes his hold on her arm _and_ her eyes, to turn around and walk away.

"Oh and," he spares a glance over his shoulder, "see you around, _darling_"

There's a much too familiar hot urge shimmering in the bottomless pits of her belly. She knows it to have been ignited by rage, though that knowledge does not restrain her when she sees two teenagers veering their 'cloud nine' giddiness out towards the back exit of the grill.

X

* * *

.

.  
One…two…three weeks _prior_  
Friday 5:00 pm

.  
.

"I was hoping I would see you tonight" she talked into the receiver, having heard no response she continued to fill Tyler's voice mail.

"I know what you're doing and I love you for it. But I miss you and I wish you were here". She snapped the phone shut, letting out a long slow breathe, and watched it as it spiraled in the sinfully crisp spring air.

"Tyler still out of town?" his voice stunned her. His lips twitched in amusement. "Did I scare you?"  
She huffed, crossing arms protectively over her chest.

"What do you want" She groaned.  
"Just checking up on you" He admitted.

With a skeptical grin, she raised arms in presentation, "well as you can see I am fine. And if you don't mind," she shifted on her feet to walk back into the grill, "I have to get back to 'girls night' with Bonnie and Elena".  
"Well," he had nodded in encouragement, "enjoy yourselves". Nodding in retort she turned.

"You are all making a grave mistake in trusting my mother." Despite her orders to uphold a charade, her skin had grown even paler than its snow white complexion.  
"And our alternative? Trusting you?-" She barely turned to look at him. Afraid her eyes would betray her.  
because it seemed Klaus knew exactly what made her tick.  
Knew what would provoke her abusive tongue, what could make her smile so brightly her eyes would crinkle. "-I don't think so"

His silence presented a window of escape, so she begun once more to her friends.

"Caroline" He called after her. There was something in his voice, a diminutive trace of dread that made her face him.  
"What?" she forced irritation into her tone.

"Just, be careful".

A gust of wind came and before her eyes could find him, he was gone.

* * *

.

.  
One…two…three months _later_  
Wednesday 7:00pm

.  
.

She struts in, hills resounding their landing all the way through the venue. People turn her way, but it does not bring her the satisfaction. She wants _their_ eyes. And the only one to grant her the small favor gives a domineering smile. She would have to change that.

"Hello darling" the youngest original chimes, "won't you join us?"  
He gestures the free chair beside him, testing her virility in this self destructive mission.

She looks to Elijah who barely acknowledges her arrival. He simply excuses himself upon her deposition.  
"Seems you scared my brother off with your raging stilettos. Could kill someone with those hills."  
"Who knows," she purrs, dragging the toe of her shoes along his steel leg, "perhaps that's my diabolical plan".

He chuckles, spreading his arm across the back of the booth, "I really do enjoy your drive, lovely".  
"Wait till you see how long I can go for" she whispers. Eyes capturing his own. Her nails fingering the handle of a table knife.

He raises quizzed brows, "mmm, now I'm intrigued". She moves forward, and like the glint of a shiny object, he draws closer to appreciate the dazzle of her cold blue eyes.  
Her hand reaches up to tug lightly on his collar, fingers grazing flesh.

"I wonder if you know how it feels, to have your heart in your hands"  
"mmm. It would be a lie if I said the thought never crossed my mind" he speaks, eyes trailing the curve of her neck, the twitch of her lips.

She exerts her force with the head of a knife cushioned in her hand towards Kols' chest -

-"Unfortunately" he groans his discontent in bemusement as his fingers snare around her wrist. Pulling her closer from underneath the table, "I'm not really interested in experiencing the feeling tonight." she cringes in pain, feeling the crippling of her bones tearing into her meat.

"It's rather a busy night; we wouldn't want to draw the attention of unnecessary casualties". It's only now she takes a whiff of how many different flavors of human blood bags scent the restaurant.

His free arm drapes across her shoulders, keeping her landed, "then again, where's the fun in that?" the look he gives her is unnerving. If she had a heart beat, hell, if she believed she had a _heart_ anymore, it would have tripped into an end.

His hands, almost like shackles, twist her arm, so the blade is poised over her abdomen.  
Caroline knows it useless to try and rebuke the penetration of the knife. She knows this by the way he smiles, steadily and easily, as if her newly acquired strength, vampire or not (two hands or one), is simply a breeze that tickles the beginning of his hair line.

She bites down when the blade of the steak knife nips her waist.

"oh" he breathes, "careful, darling. Wouldn't want a cry to be the last sound you make".

A hand, belonging to neither of the youngest vampires left in their own group, slaps down on Kols' shoulder, "nor would you" the accent tantalizes her eyes to lift upward. His blue azures chained to his brother.

"Where is Elijah?" Klaus asks.  
Without surrendering his current prisoner Kol responds, "He left"  
"And what are you doing?"  
"Simply standing ground, brother"

"Perhaps now is the time to step down" Klaus growls watching the hands of his sibling and golden beauty locked together.  
"Kol let go of the girl"

_'kol let the boy go' Klaus demanded, his hand fisted around his brothers heart through his back.  
'Back scratch train' Caroline thought. Tyler's eyes begun to bulge. Time was running thin, before the cord snapped. _

The memory floods through her barriers. The tears begin to fall.  
Klaus mistakes it for a pain far less deep than the layers hers begin.

His fingers tear into Kols' shoulder.  
"Let her go"

"You going to tear out my heart the way you said you would before, brother?" Klaus pauses, eyes widening in self disgust.  
_I didn't do it_. He wants to say.  
_I could never do it_ he tries to say.  
_Even if it meant to lose the girl whose heart you ruined._ He expects to say, instead he settles for;

"Kol enough. Please"

Please?

Kol springs up, thrusting his brothers' arm from his shoulder.  
As though he were repulsed.  
As though Klaus were toxic.

"They are the reason for your sister's death and yet you continue to entertain them. Befriend them" he spits each word after chewing them into grind. "Fin was pathetic. Rebekah; desperate. But you," he steps forward "you're so much more treacherous"

"kol-" he's made it to the exit, letting it swing to answer the lonesome hybrid the question he begs the answer to._ No, no one will ever forgive you_.

He stands there ignoring the multitude of glances coming his way. Shame. Pity. Curiosity. They all amalgamate, stealing the air around him.

And though he doesn't need to breathe, he swears that this is what it must feel like to suffocate.

X

* * *

.

.

Nine…ten…eleven weeks _prior_  
Thursday, 10:15pm

.

.

They had swung in silence for hours; neither of them spoke what hung in the profundity of their hearts.  
It wavered in the nightfall that poured into the park they had come to adopt as their 'meeting spot'.

Childish yes, but it was a place Caroline felt most at home.  
Her father would trek through her playtime like her own little knight.  
Keeping guard, so no one would breach the princesses' castle walls.

Klaus simply joined her. Listened intently to the wondrous tales of her _memories.  
_A part of him envied her, but he couldn't wish any different for the golden vampire. Only wished it never had to end.

"When my father did decide to leave, I found it difficult to come to the park. Mom never had time. And my friends had their own families to contend with. To live with. Ever since I was nine years old, I pretty much lived alone. I was stripped of my fairytales.

Dad seemed to take all the good memories with him.

My _dreams_pretty much stopped that week".

She didn't know why it was so easy to talk to him, but his presence prompted her honesty, the thing he admired most about her.

"Though, I always _hoped_that, if I ever did get the chance... of being a mother, I would be a good one. A loving one. A better one than mine."

"your mother loves you," Klaus' words panged her with guilt. Rammed her down with mountain goat horns. Though when she looked at him, with the moon hanging in his serene blue pools, there was no trace of abuse. Only benevolence. _If only you could see, the affect you can have_.

[There she was complaining that she wasn't loved enough to a man, who never enjoyed boyhood. Lived a lifetime and more without having ever received affection from the two people children could always rely on]. She tried to imagine a boy with his father. Playing. But it was an empty void. One that singed its way though his system. Leaving him empty, devoid of all emotion.

It was the first night she truly pitied him. Saw how utterly broken he [really] was.

Klaus toed the dirt with the tip of his boot, swinging lightly in the breeze. "There will never be a day when you are not loved" he finally said what his soul could no longer repress.

She looked to him; let her hair swim in the breath of the night. Let her heart ponder the possibility of what it would be like to take his hand. Journey into a future, much too clairvoyant to ever outsmart.

"All you want in life?" he raised her thoughts.

Caroline's eyes trailed every inch and detail of his ageless face; she wondered how much more he could give her. Could her life measure up to his? And a part of her, _a very small part (she hoped)_, was willing to put all cards in.  
"I don't know" she whispered.

Her eyes locked with his, _I'll be your Knight_, she saw his promise.

And that night, with the residue of deep earth rising from the floor, her eyes let him all the way in.

* * *

.

.  
One…two…three… four months _later_  
Saturday, 12:15am

.  
.

"Please don't" it must be adrenaline, perhaps even the power she feels swimming through her veins, zapping her into life when she hears the girl's plea.

"Not him. Please not him." All in vain. Because the boy winds up heartless, the girl left gasping.

Caroline slouches against the wall, licks her fingers clean of the kill. But, the silence spoils the spices of her vampirism. She's no longer vigorous. She's confused. Lost. Angry. frantic. Wholly useless.  
Caroline has known this volatile feeling before.

This feeling paints out a face she wishes would leave her alone.  
_Please, Kol. _She remembers a lifeless boy, dark hair and empty eyes, a warm, beat- less heart in her open palm. A meat suit left damaged, a symbol of what was and what could never be again.

_What have I done_? The frozen faces of tormented teens stare up at her, and she really hopes they won't visit her later. Like all the other ghastly faces of those long gone.

.

.

The moon slowly scans its way across the dark canvas. It stops now directly above the isolated, modest town of mystic falls. It showers a scarce blanket of light onto the forlorn vampire Barbie.

She's become the monster she swore she wouldn't.

The monster Bonnie would never forgive her of being.

She hears footsteps and, call her crazy, but she knows who they belong to.

She needs a drinking partner she decides. Swiping away what tears stain her porcelain face, she heaves her weary body off the floor and ventures into darkness.

X

* * *

X

One…two…three months _later_  
Wednesday 7:20pm

.

.

Klaus still stands there, his brothers exit taking with him what fortitude the original hybrid had left.

"Sir, here are your dishes" the waitress holds three platters and only he remains of his brothers. He considers packing them, but the magnetic pull of Caroline's keen gaze has him spiraling into a decision to sit. So he does. He slumps down but his eyes never rise to meet hers.

She wants him to say something.

But there isn't much to say at all.

X

* * *

.

One…two…three days _prior_  
Friday, 9:05pm

.

.

"Let's discuss Esther's plan later" Elena had pleaded. Her spoon of ice cream hovering over her sundae. "I'm sorry," Bonnie sighed. "I just, I want this over. Whatever necessary. You know?"  
"Believe me" Elena murmured, "I know".

"I still can't believe I got a B- in geometry". The witch and witchy occurrence of Tatia the third looked to Caroline in a curdling amusement.

"Really?" bonnie laughed.

"It's just," Caroline eroded, "I studied my butt of for that exam and I get a b-! The world as we know it is officially outta whack!"

Elena laughed, it resonated from deep within her and it made Caroline smile to know her distracter method was still an efficient weapon... Or gift in this situation.

"That reminds me, I want to go sky diving!"  
"Hold up" Caroline intervened, "I don't know how my talk of 'failing' triggered your suicide attempt at sky diving, but I'll play along. Skydiving! What the hell!"

"I'm one for adventure, but… skydiving?" Bonnie quipped.

"I always wanted to fly" Elena shared. "To be the one watching the earth instead of everything else watching me. To be weightless"

"Did you not hear _suicide_?"  
"Seems like death is at our feet everyday"

Caroline's features grew tender.  
"Elena-"

"I'm just saying, we might as well live until we die".

They sat silently for a while. The prospect hung around them like the excess mound of acid rain.  
Caroline reached for a glass and raised it,

"To living!" she toasted.  
"To living!" Bonnie joined.  
Elena looked to each friend, the brown of her almond eyes bathed in confidence, raising her glass of hot chocolate she saluted;  
"to living!"

X

* * *

.

.

Four...five...six… weeks _prior_  
Tuesday, 11:59pm

.  
.

There were those few nights, she would walk into the depth of the forest and wait.  
Sometimes she didn't know what she was waiting for. But nature never did ever seem to disappoint her.  
As far as the water would stretch out into the horizon, as far as the ripples would flow, her hands could never reach the mysteries of the forests lake.

Her fingers would traipse through; let the cold- refreshing river wash over her. Let it interlude her thoughts, throw her worries onto the back burner so she could enjoy the quiet serenity of the night.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you wearing red in a forest with prowling wolves is a bad omen" Klaus's spoke in a delightfully poignant approach. It filtered the air around her in his precocious esteem.

She spun around, burying herself into the cloak her grandmother had (ironically) made her, "I saw your family walking though here." He raised his eyebrows. Holding his hands behind his back. Languorously pacing around her.

"And you thought to follow us? Into the forest this late. Alone?"

"Sometimes the curiosity can kill the soul but leave the pain".

He stopped and tipped his head to the side, an amused expression cracking his features, "Did you, just quote… Alice in Wonderland?" she beamed a jovial smile, one, he thought, that could outshine the sun.

"You really do enjoy Disney, don't you"

"what can I say?" she said graciously, "A girl can dream."

"What's your favorite?"

"so you really are leaving?" she skidded around his question.

He nodded, let the silence envelope them once more.

"Come with me, Caroline."

She rolled her eyes. "And why would I do that?"

"because when my mother comes, the town won't be standing" he warned, advancing on her discreetly. "My mother will not be compassionate in the slightest. When it concerns her _duty_ to nature she is phlegmatic. She will overturn _every_ _stone_to ensure the demise of her own creation. You must understand the brevity of her scrupulous method- by the end of her reign you and your friends will be dead". He was standing directly before her at that stage. Had her backed against a tree.

"We don't need you" she shrugged heavy shoulders.  
His eyes flashed dark, but it wasn't from hate, or annoyance. No, it was from a foolish, fatuous dream that she would take his arm. Stay by his side, so he could keep her alive; in the hope she would outrun immortality itself.  
"I'll come, you know, if you call for me"

he was close. So close; with his arms leaning either side of her shoulders, his chest rising and falling in a timid turmoil. He yearned for her and no matter how much it ached to anchor himself to the hands of patience, he never forced. Because what he desired, more than to taste and to have and to hold the precious predator before him; was for her to _want him back_.

Silence visited once more, but it was laced with a powerful rush of heat; the agonizing kind that hurts when you _don't_touch it. He leaned forward, let his lips graze her cheek; let it fall to the side of her jaw where he planted a trail of searing kisses. Ones she was certain tattooed themselves beneath her flesh.

Her breathing hitched when he traced a gentle line behind her ear, when his hands ran the length of her arms. Goosebumps erupted over her apple and cinnamon flesh when his stubble tickled the exposed flesh at her chest.

"Klaus-" his name from her lips was a hymn for his crippled soul. Forehead, still gingerly pressed into the nape of her neck, raised up, his nose aligned with hers.  
His breath fanned her chin, pulled at her temptation.  
Her eyes fell from his eyes to his mouth, "Tyler should be home soon". She whimpered.

He exhaled, pressing his forehead tenderly against hers. Fingers stroking her jaw before he murmured with disdain, "don't want to keep him waiting". She held her breath, her last ditch attempt at refraining from giving over. He kissed her one last time, soft and true on her temple, "take care of yourself, Caroline" His voice was low, it rumbled through her nerves.

He pulled away, letting the cold attack her with vindictive spite. He started for the mansion, and the further away he walked, the more Caroline wanted to follow.

_Beauty and the beast_, he turns at the silver of her voice. She stood motionless and with a coy smile she said,

"That's my favorite"

* * *

.

.

One…two…three months _later_  
Wednesday 7:45pm

.

.

He jerks forward, the table barely keeping its footing as his body leans in.

She jumps in her seat, mentally cursing herself for opening the subject after he practically _saved_her a second time from his younger brother. Why! Why did she say it's his fault?

"Than, just stop following me!" she spits. With a dark chuckle he runs his hand down his face.  
"You came to _my _table, Caroline. Picked a fight with _my_brother. I think it is you who needs to cease this pathetic attempt at pointing fingers. I had warned you. All of you".

"Apparently not your sister". His face drains of colour. And it is than, she realizes, how dangerous he is when you _cannot _read his expression.

"Rebekah came to help her _precious Salvatore's._ Foolishly, yes, but _willingly_. We came to her aid and to yours. What more did you want from us?!"

_I wanted you to stop Kol from killing Tyler for accidentally killing Rebekah_

He stands, abrupt, and harshly tosses a one hundred dollar bill to the table.

"Enjoy your evening" he says with cynical disgust. Sauntering out of the restaurant; leaving chaotic memories in his wake.

* * *

.

.

One…two…two and a half weeks _prior_  
Sunday night

.  
.

"Klaus is insisting we all pack up and leave" Stefan spoke. Fire reflected in his 'its Tuesday' expression.

"And we should listen to them because…?" Damon deadpanned.

"Because Elijah told me the same thing" Elena explained with finality.

"If we stay we are sitting ducks," Caroline explained.

Bonnie raised her eyebrows at them, agreeing with Damon for the first time. _Ever_.  
"And if we trust them, we are mice in a lion's den"

"At least we all agree that to trust any 'original', witch or vampire… would be suicide".

* * *

.

.

One…two…three days _prior_  
Friday, 10:25pm

.  
.

After their night of indulge! Indulge! Indulge! The girls walked their way home. Stuttering and rolling their words together, drunk. Poor barkeeper never knew how irrevocably glamorous a blonde haired blue eyed girl could be.

She wrapped her jacket around her; it gave no warmth that evening.  
There was a storm coming.  
Everyone had felt it. Dreaded its cold penetrating arrival.

.

.

The moon hung low, its face casted in shadows. The stars hid, barely glinted their existence behind the blanket of fog: like you do when covering your face in a horror movie-peeking through fingers.

The universe quivered as _the night_ drew nearer. It begged the question _'should you not worry about the safety of those you love, if the originals tread lightly, like the ground were egg shells?' _

Her stride slowed. She had sensed a guest in their midst.

Elena turned, with her own stars flickering in her eyes, "What's wrong?" she looked so lively.

"Nothing" Caroline assured, unable to suppress a short sugary laugh at the glee evident in her friends' slow-aging faces. They will move on. Grow old. Live life.

Caroline, she would stay seventeen forever.

.

.

They all twined themselves together between the crooks of their arms.

"Look at us" Bonnie spoke into the adorned silence. "From dippers, to our dance shoes, to committee banners, to ball gowns and to supernatural dates".

Elena's grip tightened as her smile widened, "and we have survived all of it. Together."

"The three musketeers," Elena cooed proudly.  
"The three amigos" Bonnie raised her head.  
"The three blind mice!" Caroline laughed at her own words, "or, we're the three best friends that anyone can have!" she sung. They laughed, with toothy grins and twinkling eyes.

Their short voyage home was simply a miracle in a small package wrapped in a little bow. It was short. But needed. They gallivanted around, not a care in the world.  
That night they were seventeen again. They were the teenagers they were forbidden to be.

"See you around, Bonnie," Elena and Caroline kissed the witch goodnight as they dropped her off first.  
Caroline wished they had made plans earlier; _sleep over at my house soon, ok!_Bonnie demanded before she had closed her door.

"Of course" a naïve Elena affirmed.

_So sadly naïve. _

.

.

"You sure you're going to be ok walking on your own?" Elena squeezed thin arms around Caroline's petite frame. _Please, I'm a vampire!_Caroline declared, tossing her platinum locks over her shoulders, "I can take care of myself".

.

.

The floorboards of her front porch squeaked behind her. She stopped twisting her key in the door.  
Without turning, a pleased smile coloured her cheeks as she lifted her head.  
"Hello, Klaus"

x

* * *

X

.

.

One…two…three… four months _later_  
Saturday, 12:22am

.

.

The moon reaches its peek...

He stops, his lips spreading into a baffled grin.  
"I must say this is quite a change to the shadow I have grown accustomed to walking beside by night" he turns to face her. Drinking up her well-missed presence.

She emerges from the shadows, wearing O' negative blood as lip stick.  
"You don't have shadows in the dark" she says.

His eyes bear into her, _exactly._

He fists his hands into his pockets. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I was out for a drink and I heard you,"

that's not the answer he is looking for. But it's all she has to say.  
The only thing she knows to be true right now.

She looks for her courage.

He awaits her all the while.

X

* * *

.

.

One…two…three days _prior_  
Friday, 10:52pm

.  
.

"Good evening"  
she abandoned her key in the screen door to shoot him with her very own (_stalker!_) accusing eyes.  
"Why were you following us?"  
"You did hear about the newly residential vampire hunter. I was simply ensuring your safety"  
she cocked her head to the side, "it's not safe to walk alone, Caroline" he breathed weakly.

"I don't need your help"

"Enough of this banter" he lulled his head to the side, "are you going to invite me in?"

"You've been invited anyway. It ain't like you need my consent"

"Perhaps" he admitted amiably. "But I do _want_ it"

"I did come prepared this time" he said nervously, bowing his head to rummage through the white bag in his agile fingers.

She watched him, with his black jacket and raggedy grey long sleeve underneath; he truly looked like the ultimate _bad boy_ girls drool over. His dark jeans sat loosely over his well defined legs, but it was his face, so angelic under _her _porch light, slightly shadowed by his sandy-brown stubble. Defining the sharp angle of his chin, the high set of cheekbones.

His blue eyes, mildly reverent were so considerate and dare she believe, _kind_.

"I got a few Disney movies" he had begun, "Lion king. Aladdin. Little mermaid…"

He withdrew his hand with an enchanting DVD case that had Caroline's heart sprinting behind her chest, "Beauty and the beast- your favorite" his smile practically oozed with charisma, it trialed the strength of her desire.

"Well I couldn't possibly deny myself the opportunity of reliving these fantasies"

"So is that a yes?"

She turned the key and let the door swing open and stepped aside. Her cheeks flared pink when she tried to ignore the surge that ran from the place his skin carelessly grazed her arm, to the very tips of her toes.

X

* * *

.

One…two…three… four months _later_  
Saturday, 12:22am

.

.  
.

X

"I don't know what I'm doing here" she speaks as the moon falls further eastward, the blood on her mouth beginning to stain her lips red.  
"But it seems misery likes company" she points to the bottle hanging shamelessly between his deft fingers.

He raises his arm and offers her the bottle of wine.  
She takes it without protest. His black coat flaps around his knees.

She appreciates the furnus that spreads through her chest. Like wild fire.  
She hands it back wordlessly, realizing how agonizing it is, to have him avert his gaze from her.

_That was Rebekah's favorite, _he says_  
she wouldn't settle for anything less, _he says_  
she would have enjoyed this, _he says  
_Too bad she's dead, _he doesn't say.

He takes one, long, slow swig. Jaw clenching, eyes glazing over.

"I'm sorry", she apologizes. He looks to her the first time tonight. She's caught in a hurricane.  
His brows furrow together "for what?"

"You lost her too" her fingers twist together.  
"We all lost people" her fingers knot, clenching till the bone threatens to tear through skin.  
"Everyone actually", her nails dig into her palms.

"Mystic falls- home for bad luck and dead beat lifetimes"

he is suddenly close, "Caroline," his breathe trails over her lips, fingers wiping away at _tears_.  
"I am so afraid. That I'll forget their faces, forget their voices," her shoulders heave. The thought of them disappearing completely, no longer a memory but a story; devastates her.

"Caroline," he croaks, eyes ablaze in torment. _Don't cry. Please, don't cry._She shakes her head, eyes shut tight. "Why does everyone leave me?"

He draws her to him than. Wraps an arm around her waist and strokes the back of her head. Slow and steady, like the setting sun.

"You won't forget them," he assures her. Cheek flush against his chest. "And at times, it will seem like a curse, but then, there will be times when it will be your greatest gift. You may forget each minute detail that made them special, may even forget the words you secretly shared. But¸ you will _never_ forget how they made you _feel._" She presses herself further into him, lets him hold her.  
Lets him love her.

.  
.

"If you just stayed out of our lives this never would have happened," the thought flares past like a falling star and she hates herself for saying it but it's the only offence she has left.

She was meant to hate them. To hate _him. _But her heart wrings in trepidation, and the outskirts of her dead-life, reaches out for him. Even with him holding her, with him _this_close. She needs more.

She's scared and she needs her knight.  
(He always came, but _that_evening, he was one dead body too late to save the person she could never truly let go of).

"Please Caroline; I'm not the one that killed them. Try seeing that. Please" his voice is barely a whisper, tinted in desperation. His fingers touch her face, reach for something deeper.

(When she sees him, a part of her will sigh a relief.  
Because he's still here. He still cares. _That part will never change_. He promised.

But then there is the other part of her that will recoil and seethe at his presence…

Because, he carries the memories that wound her soul).

_You could have saved them_. She thinks. _Could have been the salvation to the girl I used to be. The one I wanted to forever be_.

She's been waiting for the rainbow that makes its debut after the rush of a storm. But, she knows that she has been trapped in a vortex that swallows her whole, guilt has her tied down.

"I'm sorry. But I called for you and you never came," she pulls away carefully. Losing herself in his eyes. That she can swear have tears in them.

He bows his head, _Will no one forgive me?_

He licks his lips, looks past her for a second. "I did come," he tries. Her skin shivers, her heart cries.

_Just too late,_he finishes for her.

Klaus takes a shallow breath when she refuses to speak, (though her silence says it all), cups her face tentatively "take care of yourself, Caroline. If you need me, just… I'm still here."

He kisses her forehead with tears in his eyes, turns around and walks away.

* * *

.

.

One…two days and six hours _prior_  
Saturday, 7:00 am

.

.

_"You - You came back"._

"Of course I came back. I couldn't let them... Oh, this is all my fault. If only I'd gotten here sooner".

"Maybe... it's better - it's better this way".

"Don't talk like that. You'll be all right. We're together now. Everything's going to be fine, you'll see".

"At-at least... I got to see you... one last time".

He woke with the sun lightly drumming against his eye lids, with beauty and the beast reuniting for what could have been their last time on the small laptop screen. Rain pouring, hearts breaking.

He smiled grimly when Belle rested her head against the beasts' chest, straining to hear the strong beating of a heart. Cringed when she shriveled into misery when silence had met her cheek.

He wondered venomously, if redemption was a possibility for him.  
Something groaned against his chest. He looked down, unable to contain the golden light that flourished his grin.

She was stunning. Lying there, curled up against him, (though she would not be at all pleased- at least, she would feign calamity), their bodies fitted together as if they were made for each other alone. He thrived on how her hair curled against her delicate face, a magical curtain. How her lashes, thick and long, shadowed the slight dip of her cheek bones. She was a goddess.

He watched her, tried to sedate the quickening ache of his heart, as she stirred and _smiled _up at him with sleep in her eyes.  
"Good morning," she whispered with a citrusy edge.

Hand tucked under his cheek, he lowered himself, shifting to lie on his side so their faces were leveled and their breathing clashed. Klaus leaned forward and memorized every detail with bright, immaculate eyes; let his free hand trace the lush curve of her cheeks, spiral his lithe fingers through her golden hair. She leaned into his touch, let her eyes flit closed.

"You should probably go" she groaned. Wanting forever to last in his touch.

(The moment was ephemeral but glorious. It is something they will always hold onto, when loneliness wraps iron arms across their shoulders).

He smiled widely resting his head against hers, "sweet, Caroline. You will be the death of me". His lips, feather light, gently pressed against her forehead. _Goodbye, sweetheart_. He pushed himself up and made his way to the door, pulling his arms through his jacket.

"I usually have to throw you off me bed", he gave a toothy grin as he turned to look at her in the untouched morning air. Blanket wrapped around her with a pretty pink sheepish grin.

"Well, I would like our last encounter to be a nice one" he said, "Do recall, my family and I leave today" there's a hopeful gleam in his eye, "last chance to join".

"We'll do good without you" her smile faltered. But her voice remained silky.  
He smiled again, an erudite glint in his beautiful eyes; _we will see each other again_.  
With the sun flowing down on them, he said lightheartedly;

"One day Caroline, you will wish you had called for me earlier. Wished I had been there"

**THE END**

* * *

i know it was long, and if you actually got to the end i thank you so much for even bothering to read such a ... _i dont know what the hell i'm doing_ piece of work. if you haven't fallen asleep, and have the time, please review. Constructive Criticism helps a great ordeal.  
for instance, was the 'flow' (the events before and after the _night_too hard to follow?)


End file.
